12 comments:

Anonymous
said...

So why doesn't everyone join one superalliance that rules the whole galaxy and live happily ever after?

I still don't get the point of this game from your post. You yourself say "If you want riches, you shall never leave the starter zone of highsec.... You play EVE Online to capture this map with other like-minded players. To win a virtual war.".

It should include something like this is a Massively Online multiplayer game, where you play together with hudreds of thousands of people from around the globe. You impersonate capsuleers, people who roam the endless universe in spaceships battling enemies or each other, building stations and conquering entire solar systems in epic fleet battles.

If you don't say something similar up front, future players will have no idea what kind of game this actually is, and they will not understand what this ship is that you might lose.

So why doesn't everyone join one superalliance that rules the whole galaxy and live happily ever after?

Because not everyone wants to join one super alliance that rules the whole galaxy so they do not. Noe joining them is just as viable a choice as joining them.

Also the super alliances can only 'own' the player owned section of null security space. That is only one part of the game and many people never go that way because they do not have interest in it.

Eve is a game of personal world building. While the super alliances and non super alliances are running around with their large, dramatic fleet, political games and logistic complexities as they send propaganda to their members to keep them impassioned, someone is working in a ship yard in empire space building the engines of war.

Eve functions as a whole. All of the non combatants matter. They have their own worries, player pirates prey upon them even in the higher secured areas of the world.

But, Eve is about the also personal experience. Even if you have that personal experience with other people that you work with all of the appeal and enjoyment from the game comes from what you decide. The game itself is one big tool for you to craft your playing experience with.

So, from the outside it can seem that the 'point of the game is none' because there is no end goal. Players function upon a constantly shifting series of priorities. Even Gevlon has changed his thoughts, goals and focuses since he has started playing.

The area that many people flounder in the most with Eve is making goals. The game gives you none. It just suggests things that you might be interested in doing. Then, it gives you tools. Creative people go and make their own paths that have nothing to do with the basics of the game.

There are corporations that run gambling games. There are corporations that do nothing more then assist other people with things that are randomly hard to do (jump clones, anchoring Player owned star bases in high security space, assisting new players with learning the game).

Eve is a game where you can run around and blow up other peoples space ships and then have to come back and write a report about the incident for your command (see Eve Uni's killboard notation requirements).

Eve tends to create emotional reactions. Everyone can't just get along because people hate each other. There are groups in the game who have warred so long and hard against each other that they cannot live in happiness.

In a game where you don't have to deal with people you don't want to, why should you?

Even if the endgame is control of territory, there's still a spectrum of player preference - at one end of the spectrum is the player who is happy to be a footsoldier obeying others, so long as 'their side' wins.

At the other end, there's the player who wants to create their own corp or alliance or coalition, even if they have to struggle against large established alliances and corps, so long as they control their own movements.

In the middle would be players who are willing to join a group so long as they're liked and trusted, listened to and have influence over the group.

Encouraging blob warfare is NOT a way to try and bring new players into EVE. The major alliances are not for everyone. Being player 1234, in Drake 1234, who does not even know what the next jump is on a fleet op is not fun.

The major alliances idea of combat is nothing more than an escalation to caps and super caps. I'm sure that's fun for pilot 1234 in Drake 1234. The idea of 'fighting for one common goal' is questionable at best. Most fights are lost before they even begin, due to 'spy x' flipping 'station y', then you're locked out of your assets. That sounds like fun there. Pilot 1234 in Drake 1234 had nothing to do with that, now he's screwed over.

The idea that the best riches are in null-sec is ridiculous. Most players make more money in hi-sec than they do in null, which is why most null dwellers have a hi-sec alt. In fact the only members who get rich in null-sec are the guys who actually own the tech moons, not player 1234 in Drake 1234.

You are incorrect in your statement about Hi-Sec, and Lo-Sec 'newbie zones', and not surprisingly you failed to mention wormhole space. Also, you failed to mention that an alarming majority of null sec (sov and non-sov) is EMPTY, and most players reside in the 'newbie zones' of lo-sec (which is a wasteland) and hi-sec. I could go on and on with the shortcomings of your 'Come, play EVE Online' however, I won't.

For me and many others, defeating the end boss in a raid (and all the other bosses before that) is the end goal whereas gear is a means to an end.

If I wanted to play some serious PvP I'd likely switch to Guild Wars 2 because gear is irrelevant in this game in the context of PvP.

Either way, I find the equation strange, and wrong. Someone who plays WoW to feel good about their gear likely plays EVE to join some super alliance to "pwn some noobs" with like minded players on the SA forums. If anything your statement shows its how much you misunderstood what WoW progression is about and how you min-max that part of the game.